Here’s How Hackers Allegedly Leaked ‘The Last of Us Part II’ Plot Details

By wazup on May 5, 2020 Comments Closed / 153 views

Here’s How Hackers Allegedly Leaked ‘The Last of Us Part II’ Plot Details

Details Emerge About 'The Last of Us Part II' Hack

Source: PlayStation / Naughty Dog

Exactly one week ago, PlayStation and Naughty Dog were rocked by a massive leak of its highly-anticipated game, The Last of Us Part II. Now we know exactly how it happened.

In the most 2020 news ever, cut scenes that basically exposed significant plot details of The Last of Us Part II hit the web much to the dismay of gamers. Rumors swirled that a disgruntled ex-Naughty Dog employee was behind the massive leak, now Kotaku is reporting that hackers were able to obtain the PS4 exclusive’s plot details by using Naughty Dog’s older games.

Kotaku shared a Twitter thread that broke down how the bored nerds got access to the game studio’s serves. In the thread, @PixelButts explains how every Naughty Dog game has a “final” patch that contains an Amazon AWS key. When paired with a secret bucket ID, the user can gain access to whatever is on that server.

This vulnerability was discovered recently and some hackers took full advantage of it, saving TLOU1, UC3, and other dev stuff.

At the time, it was disclosed to me around early February, and was very early on so ~January 2020 it was discovered

— PixelButts (@PixelButts) May 3, 2020

PixelButts further clarified to Kotaku via direct messages that “The UC3 [Uncharted 3] key got them UC3 development material, and UC2’s key did the same, but there was some TLOU1 content mixed into UC3’s server, It wasn’t too much of a stretch to think TLOU1’s server would have TLOU2 [The Last of Us 2] material.”

Based on the timestamps of the leaked footage, it matches the date when the vulnerability was discovered. A source revealed to PixelButts that once the leaks went live, Naughty Dog changed the keys rendering the other keys useless. PixelButts made sure to point out that his source was not involved in the hack.

Come may 30th, late at night, the source that disclosed this to me stated that the key had changed so ND for sure knew how to resolve this issue, and no keys work with the bucket IDs now.

This is good but theres more

— PixelButts (@PixelButts) May 3, 2020

Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier spoke to two people with direct knowledge on the situation, and he also came to the conclusion that hackers found a security vulnerability in a patch for an older Naughty Dog title and used it to gain access to the company’s servers.

OK: After talking to two people with direct knowledge of how TLOU2 leaked as well as some Naughty Dog employees, I have a good idea of what happened. Short version: hackers found a security vulnerability in a patch for an older ND game and used it to get access to ND’s servers.

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 3, 2020

Welp.

Despite the hack, The Last of Us Part II has gone gold already and now has a new release date of June 19, 2020. If you’re still excited about the game, you might want to avoid the leaks which are still floating around on the internet.

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Photo: PlayStation / Naughty Dog